In order to be ranked on the list, a franchise company needs to be courting new franchisees in the U.S. or Canada. Companies that made the list also need to have had at least 10 units open and operating as of July 31, 2023, with at least one U.S.-based franchise.

Factors such as franchise cost and fees, size and growth, network support and brand strength determined each company’s evaluation.

Companies like Interim HealthCare, Home Instead and Senior Helpers ranked the highest of the home-based care franchises that managed to grab a spot on the list.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 59

— 2023 Rank: 55

— Units: 655

— Based in Sunrise, Florida, and a part of Caring Brands National, Interim is a franchise that provides home health, hospice, palliative care and other services across locations in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Home Instead

— Rank: 149

— 2023 Rank: 155

— Units: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 172

— 2023 Rank: 172

— Units: 361

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 222

— 2023 Rank: 208

— Units: 222

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold Home Care

— Rank: 252

— 2023 Rank: 267

— Units: 186

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

ComForCare

— Rank: 254

— 2023 Rank: 402

— Units: 229

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has hundreds of territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas. ComForCare operates under parent company Best Life Brands. Another Best Life Brands company, Blue Moon Estate Sales, also ranked on the Franchise 500 list.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 279

— 2023 Rank: 141

— Units: 373

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 280

— 2023 Rank: 229

— Units: 193

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

HomeWell Care Services

— Rank: 283

— 2023 Rank: 347

— Units: 136

— HomeWell is a Burkburnett, Texas-based home care franchise that operates across the U.S. The company offers companion care, personal care, as well as specialty care.

Right at Home

— Rank: 318

— 2023 Rank: 260

— Units: 716

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

Nurse Next Door

— Rank: 418

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 183

— Vancouver, Canada-based Nurse Next Door is a home care franchise system that operates in the U.S., Canada and Australia. As an organization, the company provides personal care, companionship care, homemaking services, dementia care and more.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 438

— 2023 Rank: 327

— Units: 197

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 449

— 2023 Rank: 483

— Units: 453

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Home Helpers

— Rank: 475

— 2023 Rank: 396

— Units: 308

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 479

— 2023 Rank: N/A

— Units: 692

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

The post 15 Home-Based Care Providers Rank On Entrepreneur’s Annual Franchise 500 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The list is based on last year’s global systemwide sales — total sales for both franchise and company units — performance.

In order to earn a spot on the list, a company needs to be a legal U.S. franchise. It should also own at least 10% of the company’s total units.

At-home care franchise companies Home Instead Senior Care, Right at Home and Interim HealthCare managed to crack the top 100 portion of the list, alongside big name companies like McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Dunkin’ (Nasdaq:DNKN) and The UPS Store (UPS:NYSE).

Home Instead Senior Care

— Rank: 44

— System Sales: $2,400,000,000

— Total Locations: 1,217

— Home Instead is a Omaha, Nebraska-based personal care franchise company that has locations in over a dozen countries. In 2021, the home care technology company Honor acquired Home Instead.

Interim HealthCare

— Rank: 65

— System Sales: $1,288,000,000

— Total Locations: 655

— The Sunrise, Florida-based company – a part of Caring Brands International — provides personal care, hospice care, palliative care, pediatric care and staffing services.

Visiting Angels

— Rank: 90

— System Sales: $900,000,000

— Total Locations: 697

— Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania-based Visiting Angels is an in-home senior care company that provides companion care, personal care services and more.

Right at Home

— Rank: 100

— System Sales: $778,386,711

— Total Locations: 712

— Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with locations in the U.S. and six other countries.

BrightStar Care

— Rank: 117

— System Sales: $653,907,370

— Total Locations: 370

— Chicago-based BrightStar is a provider of home care, senior living and supplemental staffing. The organization has been deliberately increasing its company-owned footprint of late.

Comfort Keepers

— Rank: 124

— System Sales: $625,000,000*

— Total Locations: 645

— Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is one of the largest personal home care providers in the U.S. It recently was acquired by The Halifax Group.

Senior Helpers

— Rank: 176

— System Sales: $387,243,000

— Total Locations: 327

— Maryland-based Senior Helpers has a national personal care network, as well as adult day centers. The company was acquired by Advocate Health Enterprises in 2021.

ComForCare Home Care

— Rank: 225

— System Sales: $238,000,000

— Total Locations: 223

— ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas.

Home Helpers Home Care

— Rank: 230

— System Sales: $231,856,454

— Total Locations: 304

— The Cincinnati-based Home Helpers is a home care franchise that provides personal care, nutrition and companionship services, among others. It serves over 1,000 communities in the U.S.

Synergy HomeCare

— Rank: 236

— System Sales: $223,257,894

— Total Locations: 417

— Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Always Best Care

— Rank: 245

— System Sales: $212,591,506

— Total Locations: 232

— Roseville, California-based Always Best Care is a home care franchise company that operates across 225 territories in 30 states and Canada.

Homewatch CareGivers

— Rank: 246

— System Sales: $211,550,548

— Total Locations: 224

— Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers is a home care franchise company that operates in over 30 states and seven countries. The franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers.

Griswold

— Rank: 251

— System Sales: $199,100,000

— Total Locations: 178

— The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services in 30 states.

FirstLight Home Care

— Rank: 257

— System Sales: $188,207,247

— Total Locations: 195

— Cincinnati-based FirstLight Home Care is a provider of non-medical home care. The company also has a specialized care program aimed at seniors with dementia.

Assisting Hands Home Care

— Rank: 299

— System Sales: $124,305,162

— Total Locations: 175

— Assisting Hands Home Care offers both medical and non-medical assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, companionship, chores and more.

Caring Senior Service

— Rank: 475

— System Sales: $35,050,000

— Total Locations: 51

— San Antonio, Texas-based home care franchise company Caring Senior Service offers personal care, meal preparation, transportation, companionship, housekeeping and more.

The post 16 Home-Based Care Companies Earn Spots On The Franchise Times’ Top 400 List appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Personal home care and home health care are both branches connected to the post-acute care family tree. As such, home care leaders believe that there are numerous ways that their organizations can help alleviate home health provider pain points.

One major pain point that can be seen across home health care are referral rejection rates. Last year, the industry had a 76% referral rejection rate, compared to 54% in 2019, according to data from WellSky.

Jeff Bevis, chief operating officer at Caring Senior Service, sees home care as a natural ally for home health providers that are struggling in this area.

“It’s been a matter of time [that we] partner with them,” he told Home Health Care News. “[One way we do] is by trying to limit the hours, or the time, that the home health nurse is spending with their client. In other words, when the home health nurse is with a client for 15, 30 or even 60 minutes, home care workers can pick up more of the non-medical client needs to keep them happy and healthy in the home.”

The San Antonio, Texas-based home care franchise company Caring Senior Service has roughly 50 locations across nearly 20 states.

Bevis noted that this kind of arrangement gets to the heart of the referral rejection rate problem. It allows the home health agency to take on more referrals without making new hires or having to stretch their existing employees.

Currently, Caring Senior Service is collaborating with two home health agencies in rural Illinois to help lift the burden on these providers.

“We assigned a care manager to each of those home health agencies, and they’re meeting with those agencies once a week to talk through the patients that are most in need of non-medical home care activities and services, in order to reduce the amount of time and pressure on the home health agency,” Bevis said. “It lets us pick up a larger part of that slack for them, and makes more efficient use of their home health nurses.”

On its end, partnering with home health providers has been a referral boon for Caring Senior Service.

“It’s reinforcing existing referrals,” Bevis said. “In some cases, it’s in strengthening new or early referral source relationships.”

Griswold CEO Michael Slupecki pointed out that home health bonuses and penalties are tied to areas that fall under home care’s direct purview.

“The OASIS-based measures all center around the ability to self-care — from grooming, dressing, bathing, toileting and eating — all things that we address with the home care model,” he told HHCN.

The Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Griswold is also a home care franchise. It provides personal care services via more than 170 locations in 30 states.

At Griswold, helping prevent hospital admissions is the main area of focus when it comes to partnerships with home health providers.

“We have tremendous ability, in a non-medical way, to help prevent admissions,” Slupecki said. “We can ensure that the home is a safe environment, we can assist in transfer. On the heart failure side, just monitoring weight gain or loss. On the UTI side, which is a big reason for admissions, just monitoring the frequency of urination. Home health is designed to be curative, where we view our services more on the wellness side.”

Right now, Griswold is partnering with a national home health provider through its company-owned locations.

“The way we talk to them is by having them introduce us to their clients,” Slupecki said. “We’re going to help them on their scores, because they’re impacted by client satisfaction scores. They’re impacted by acute care hospitalizations or ER visits. We feel like we can be the eyes and the ears.”

‘Boots on the ground’

Synergy HomeCare is no stranger to partnering with home health agencies.

In 2021, the company teamed up with Compassus in a deal that offered both companies’ clients access to each other’s services.

“We were focused on care coordination, and just ensuring that all of the patient’s needs were being addressed holistically between our two organizations,” Rich Paul, chief partnership officer at Synergy, told HHCN. “There was also a cross-referral relationship, so that as the acuity of our client increased, we could refer them to hospice care, and provide wraparound home care services as needed, and vice versa.”

Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates more than 400 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

The company still sees significant value in these kinds of collaborations.

“Home care rounds out that continuum of care very nicely,” Paul said. “We are kind of the boots on the ground that are in the home for extended periods of time. I think because of that, we can be a good partner for home health providers.”

Moving forward, Synergy is looking to form more partnerships with home health providers at both the local and national level.

Paul believes that there needs to be more partnerships between home health and home care providers, but payer challenges are still a hindering factor.

“I think the greatest challenge in creating partnerships between home health and home care is finding a payer source,” he said. “Most of our examples of care collaboration occur with clients receiving Medicare on the home health side, and using private-pay on the home care side. In some cases, there may be a funding source like an ACO, but more often than not, because Medicare does not cover home care, it does become a little more challenging.”

The post ‘Boots On The Ground’: Why Home Care Provider-Home Health Agency Partnerships Work appeared first on Home Health Care News.

While recruiting and retention remain paramount, driving efficiencies with existing staff will help franchisees thrive in today’s environment, Synergy Home Care CEO Charlie Young said last month during Home Health Care News’ Franchise Forum.

“There’s been so much focus over the last 24 months on labor, on recruiting and retention of caregivers, and we’re still very focused on that … but we’re starting to see a time where we need to shift our thinking into, ‘Are we being as efficient with our staff as we can be?’” Young said.

Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates more than 400 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

At Synergy, capacity management means that every caregiver — adhering to their scheduling requirements — is maxed out at 100% capacity.

“How are we scheduling, how are we managing those schedules?” Young said. “How are we also looking at things like drive time, and where we’re putting people in between?”

Young believes that home care franchise companies are in a good position to implement resources that will help in this area.

“We’re going to leverage our national scale to talk to the same people that are working in other industries,” he said. “[We’re going to be] providing software and data management tools that enable us to maximize capacity of the workforce within our franchise operations. We’re very focused on that. I’m very excited about the impacts that can have on the business.”

For Synergy, it’s also been important to remember that – since the onset of the pandemic – the needs and desires of the caregiver have changed.

This means that caregivers are less likely to embrace a schedule that is set in stone and more likely embrace one that offers them flexibility.

“[They] want a schedule that is going to meet [their needs],” Young said. “That might mean four days on, four days off. That might mean something less than eight hours. This puts a higher demand on capacity management as well, because you have a more varied need set from your caregiver universe. You’ve got to slot that into the client scheduling.”

During the discussion, Young also touched on Synergy’s recruitment and retention efforts and what’s been successful for the company.

“Our franchise operations that are most successful are those who are really focused on the softer side of the equation — the culture, the connection, the understanding of caregivers’ total needs,” Young said.

The company has begun approaching its recruitment and retention strategy like its sales processes.

To that end, the company has implemented a recruiting management system. Specifically, a software tool that enables Synergy to post and market jobs more efficiently.

The recruiting management system has also given the company access to important data that is critical to the hiring process.

“There’s several core metrics that we have our entire system really focused on,” Young said. “Number of applicants, and how many of those applicants are actually interviewing? How do we increase that percentage once we’re interviewing them, [or] before that? How fast do you respond to an applicant? In any sales environment, it’s the speed to lead.”

The post In Tough Recruitment Environment, Home Care Leaders Turn Attention To ‘Capacity Management’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.

While the former has already received some much deserved fanfare, Home Health Care News wanted to take the time to shine the spotlight on the latter. These stories are diverse in topic matter, style and structure.

Here are some of HHCN’s favorite hidden gems of 2022.

The New Franchise Owners Who Have Made Home Care Their Second Act (Aug. 9)

Whether it’s former hospitality professionals looking to transfer their skills to a new arena, a former attorney looking for new ways to help people, or an executive looking for a new business opportunity entirely — the world of home care franchise ownership is filled with individuals of various career backgrounds and life experiences.

Many of them have been able to use skills from their past to set themselves up for success as home care franchise owners at companies like Home Instead and Seniors Helping Seniors. Four franchisees sat down with HHCN to tell us their stories in part 1 of a two-part series.

Home-Based Care Staffing By Geography: Where Workforce Woes Are Worse (Oct.17)

Staffing shortages have long been a pain point for home-based care providers across the U.S., but in some parts of the country it’s taking an even greater toll on providers’ ability to offer care.

Specifically, workforce shortages are hitting the South and Pacific Northwest harder due the high percentage of seniors with self-care disabilities and daily activities of living challenges, a study led by the University of California at San Francisco found.

Rural areas, in particular, struggled with recruiting home-based care workers due to the challenges associated with navigating care delivery in those communities.

“It’s hard to find workers in rural areas, especially in personal care,” Susan Chapman, one of the study’s authors, previously told HHCN. “Personal care aides in rural areas have unique challenges with transportation, travel time from one client to another, isolating work, internet connectivity and so many others. Those are things we knew before on a surface level, but this makes it all the more worrisome that we don’t have workers in these areas.”

Is CMS’ Proposed Home Health Rate Cut Legal? Other Court Decisions Suggest No (Oct. 18)

The home health proposed rule for 2023 has since been released but, back in October, in the weeks leading up to its unveiling, home health stakeholders pushed back against the inclusion of a 4.2% aggregate decrease in payments.

Industry stakeholders fought this fight by leaning into advocacy and legislation. Still, they didn’t want to leave any tool in their toolbox unused, so even legal action was on the table – and still is.

Though many viewed taking legal action as a last resort, the industry has a staggering amount of legal precedents on their side.

VillageMD Continues Driving Home-Based Primary Care, A Trend That’s Not Going Away (Jul. 11)

The expansion of home-based primary care could be the key to solving many access-to-care issues seen in the U.S. No one understands this better than VillageMD.

VillageMD — a primary care provider that operates across 22 markets and serves over 1.6 million patients — has been one of the most visible players in the primary care space. Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) is one of the company’s chief investors — pouring billions of dollars into it over the years.

VillageMD’s rise coincides with the increase in popularity of home-based primary care.

Additionally, this type of service continues to attract attention from buyers looking to lean into the potential synergistic opportunities that come with having a primary care entity under the umbrella.

From Nursing School Comes Hope: ‘Nurses Are Going To Home-Based Care’ (Sep. 2)

The hospital – and other acute settings – has alway been the most popular early career path for nurses.

However, this is slowly beginning to change, as more nurses embrace home- and community-based care settings.

“A lot of TV shows and publicity was done for hospital care,” Dr. Sun Jones previously told HHCN. “It’s more glorified to work in the ICU, for example. I think things are shifting now. Nurses are finding their niches in community-based settings a little more.”

Part of this trend is thanks to the turnover that took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, working conditions at hospitals and other traditional settings become more dangerous.

Rise Of The Chief People Officer: Why Home-Based Care Providers Are More Frequently Investing In The Role (Nov. 8)

Peruse the LinkedIn page for any tech company or startup, and you’ll eventually see someone that holds the title of chief people officer (CPO).

The same can now be said at many mid-sized and large home-based care companies.

But what does a CPO do exactly?

“One of our primary responsibilities is making sure that we work in concert with the executive team and other leaders to have a people-based strategy that allows us to accomplish the business goals,” David Cook Jr., executive vice president and CPO at AccentCare, previously told HHCN. “Chief people officer evolved from human resources roles. It’s become much more of a strategic role than it was in the past.”

AccentCare and Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) are just a couple of the home-based care companies that empowered these executives to make greater changes at their organizations. This includes everything from improving employee engagement to creating an intentional culture.

More Profits, Less Market Share: The Home Care Industry’s Silent Killer Comes To Surface (Dec. 8)

Non-medical home care is at a critical moment in time.

The combination of wage increases and inflation in the U.S. means that providers will need to decide whether to double down on a private-pay structure or find another way to grab market share and up the amount of people they are able to offer care to.

The post Franchisee Trends, Legal Battles And Staffing Woes: 7 Stories That Flew Under The Radar in 2022 appeared first on Home Health Care News.

More often than ever, professionals from other sectors are changing course, entering the home care industry and jump starting their careers by becoming franchisees.

This new class of home care franchise owners brings with them backgrounds in law, hospitality, public relations and other areas.

Since moving into the home care sector, many have been able to use their previous experience to their advantage. Others are mission driven — home care has afforded them the opportunity to find deeper meaning in their work.

Home Health Care News caught up with a handful of these individuals to find out more about the challenges they are facing, the new perspective they bring to the industry and their growth goals.

This is the first of a two-part series. Check back next week for more features on the newest faces of home-based care.

David and Monica Conroy, Synergy Homecare

For many, purchasing a home care franchise is their second act.

But David Conroy’s career background closely resembles a four-act structure than a two-act play. He began his career as an accountant, and then eventually became the chief financial officer for the University Club, a private social club in Washington, D.C. After this, he served as the club’s general manager for 14 years.

“It’s an incredible experience being a manager of a private club, because it’s hospitality on steroids,” David told HHCN. “Unlike a restaurant or hotel, our members pay a lot of money to belong, so they have incredibly high expectations. Within the club, I really ran a number of different business units. We had a hotel, we had restaurants, we had a bar, we had athletics and we had a spa.” 

Now, David owns a Synergy Homecare location in Lake Ridge, Virginia. He runs the business with his co-owner — and spouse — Monica Conroy, who also comes to home care with a unique background.

“I have a degree in journalism and a minor in English, and my professional background has been a little varied, always communications related,” Monica said. “I did some PR. I did some nonprofit marketing and internal communications. Then I worked for the Rotary Club in Washington.”

Monica’s skills opened the door for her to take the lead with the sales and marketing efforts at the couple’s Synergy franchise.

David’s heightened hospitality background came in handy in many ways too.

“It taught me an awful lot about running a business generally, about concepts of marketing and budgeting and how to get the best out of staff,” David said.

Ultimately, both hospitality and public relations are people businesses, similar to home care. It “perfectly marries” both of their current and past experiences.

There were a series of life changes, including David experiencing a minor heart attack four years ago, that led the couple to home care.

“It made us look at our life, what we were doing and what we wanted to do,” Monica said. “That’s the backstory, with a lot of steps in between, and how we ended up with a Synergy franchise.”

Monica and David have been running Synergy Homecare Lake Ridge for slightly over a year.

Running Synergy allowed David to hold on to his two favorite parts of being a general manager.

“I realized that what gave me true joy was the two groups of people I took care of every day — my members and my staff,” he said. “Anything that I ever did that made their day better was what truly made me happy.”

Still, challenges have popped up along the way.

“One of the surprising things to us is how slowly those first clients would come,” David said. “We grew really quickly in March. We reached over 600 hours in a week in March, then you lose a few clients. It’s almost like a roller coaster in this business, but a roller coaster that’s slowly inching its way uphill.”

Monica and David are aiming to reach 1,000 hours by the end of year.

“I have no upper limit to where we want to grow,” David said. “I think if we do this job well and we establish ourselves in the community, then we will just continue to grow.”

Ben Chernow, Seniors Helping Seniors

Prior to becoming the owner of three Seniors Helping Seniors territories in the Maryland suburbs, Ben Chernow was a practicing attorney for four years. During this time, he specialized in commercial litigation.

“Which means that I helped companies sue each other,” Chernow said. “I really did not enjoy it very much.”

Indeed, Chernow quit at the beginning of 2022 and began looking for his next move career-wise.

“I did not have a plan in place for what I was going to do next,” he said. “I was just trying to figure stuff out, and then I came across Seniors Helping Seniors and just immediately fell in love with the business.”

One of the things that sparked Chernow’s love for the home care industry was its ability to help people and the prospect of making a difference in the lives of seniors and their families.

In terms of career advancement, Chernow believes that owning and operating a franchise will allow him to gain financial independence and self-sufficiency.

Chernow is still at the start of his home care franchise journey. The ink is still drying on his franchise agreement, which he signed in April, and he began making new hires in June. In July, his Seniors Helping Seniors location began to bring on clients.

So far, there have been a lot of learning curves that have come with entering a new sector.

“Hiring people is just a skillset that I’ve never had before, or used before,” Chernow said. “As an attorney, I did have to question people, but it was a very different type of questioning with a very different goal that is not similar at all to job interviews.”

Plus, as a former litigator, Chernow was used to the idea of having a clear cut outcome in the courtroom.

“You file something with the judge, and the judge picks a winner and a loser and you move on,” he said. “Here, there’s no clear cut winner, there’s no clear cut loser. There’s no clear cut fight that you’re having with anybody else. You’re building your business and following your own path that you set out on.”

However, his legal background has been a strength. Chernow has found that having strong communication skills and the ability to build trust with clients is important in both law and home care.

Being an attorney also made it easier to work under the industry’s regulations.

“I am abnormally comfortable navigating regulations, and creating policies and procedures that comply, while also allowing for operational flexibility going forward in order to adapt as things change,” Chernow said.

Chernow is still new to the home care block, so for now his goals are to just cement his reputation in the communities he serves.

“I just want to become a trusted resource within the community for the aging process, and be someone people turn to when they are struggling with this process or need help,” he said.

Tyler Tuggle, Home Instead

When looking to enter the home care industry, Tyler Tuggle didn’t always expect to own a home care franchise business.

“I did look at acquiring an independent agency, and I would have been open to it had I found the right fit,” Tuggle said.

Tuggle has been the owner of Home Instead Towson in Maryland for three years, but before that, he was a business strategist at the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

He is also an army veteran, and during his time at McKinsey, his focus was the aerospace and defense sector.

“At McKinsey, if you can imagine, our product was the presentation or the idea, but we didn’t do any implementation,” Tuggle said. “I just didn’t find that as fulfilling as some of my previous roles where I was more on the ground, making stuff happen, implementing ideas and carrying out strategies. I enjoyed that.”

Tuggle was looking to become a small business owner and landed on home care, in particular, after having to research care services for his own parents.

Through his research, he discovered the business opportunity in senior care.

“It’s a very solid business, especially given that the baby boomers are aging,” Tuggle said. “I really just honed in on the home care industry.”

Plus, like many others entering home care for the first time, Tuggle wanted to make an impact with his work.

“They do a lot of good stuff at McKinsey, but [they’re] primarily focused on helping companies and organizations make more money in general,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that the industry I ended up in was doing good, and making a difference in individuals’ lives.”

Home Instead caught his eye because of their work with Veteran Affairs. He stressed that giving back to the veteran community was something he is passionate about.

As someone who entered home care in 2019, COVID-19 has been Tuggle’s biggest challenge, but it wasn’t the only one.

“One of the things that I definitely underestimated coming in was just the amount of time, energy and planning it takes to really get the right fit between a caregiver and a client,” he said. “It’s not as easy as saying, ‘Here’s the senior in their home, here’s the caregiver, send them over.’ Our mission is not just to keep the seniors in their home, but to create a meaningful relationship.”

On the flip side, Tuggle’s business strategist background gave him a specific mindset that has aided in his business’ success.

“It was just me coming in and having the willingness to reinvest in the business — not trying to take every dollar out of the business, but making sure it’s a stable business, and that my staff and caregivers have everything they need to do their job,” he said.

With three years under his belt, Tuggle has seen steady growth.

“From March onward, we have seen a decent amount of growth,” he said. “There’s been a lot of pent up demand. I know people who really need the service. There’s also a shortage of caregivers in the area. What we’ve really had to do is focus on our hiring and our retention efforts.”

Check back for the second part of this series next week on homehealthcarenews.com.

The post The New Franchise Owners Who Have Made Home Care Their Second Act appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Kendal at Home expands its footprint in Massachusetts, Kentucky

Kendal at Home, an at-home care provider that follows the CCRC-without-walls model, is expanding.

The nonprofit announced this week that it has expanded its services to include residents in the Boston area of Massachusetts and Northern Kentucky.

“Our presence in Massachusetts and Ohio has built over the years and through this time we’ve come to understand the needs of older adults in these regions. We are thrilled to welcome more members within Massachusetts and in Ohio’s neighboring state of Kentucky,” Lynne Giacobbe, CEO of Kendal at Home, said in a press release. “For those whose best and most desired option is to remain at home, Kendal at Home provides members the resources and services to help them age in place while retaining their autonomy, dignity and peace of mind.”

Launched in 2004, the Cleveland-based Kendal at Home is one of the oldest, largest and most well-known “CCRC without walls” in the U.S. The company is an affiliate of Kendal Corporation, a nonprofit senior housing provider with 13 communities across its eight-state footprint.

Kendal at Home was originally launched under the auspices of Kendal at Oberlin. Due to growing demand and a proven ability to keep members healthy at home, it eventually evolved into an independent affiliate of the larger Kendal system around 2016.

Personal-Touch Home Care acquires Neighbors Home Care

Personal-Touch Home Care (PTHC) – an in-home care provider with a footprint across New York – has announced the acquisition of Bronx Community Home Care Inc., also known as Neighbors Home Care.

“We are delighted to welcome a truly phenomenal group of health care professionals,” Rob Caione, CEO of PTHC, said in a press release. “The need for more robust and better care solutions became all too apparent during the recent pandemic. We are well positioned for the surge in demand we are already seeing for home care services.”

Caione also noted he’s confident that this will not be the company’s last acquisition as PTHC expands its footprint throughout the New York market.

The latest acquisition means PTHC now has 4,500 caregivers looking after 3,600 patients in the New York City, Long Island and Westchester communities. The company also announced it will hire more caregivers following this week’s acquisition.

Jordan N. Shames, the president and CEO of Neighbors Home Care, will retire after 37 years with the company.

Synergy HomeCare sells 9 new territories

Synergy Home Care continued on a steady growth trajectory in the first quarter of 2022, selling nine new territories and expanding in Florida, Colorado and other states.

The franchise has sold more than 100 new territories in the last two years, increasing its system size by 25% since March 2020. In 2021, the company sold 52 territories, a 37% increase compared to 38 territories in 2020.

Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates more than 400 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

“Demand for home care remains high post-pandemic, due to demographics as well as an increasing desire to age in place, both of which are fueling our pipeline,” Charlie Young, CEO of Synergy HomeCare, said in a press release. “Compassionate entrepreneurs recognize the unique opportunity in the home care segment, to not only build a business, but to make a difference in their community,”

Help at Home expands into New York

Help at Home, one of the larger home care organizations in the U.S., announced last week the acquisitions of Edison Home Health Care and Preferred Home Care of New York.

Between the two agencies, Help at Home will gain 10,500 new clients, 12,000 new employees and a geographic footprint in at least 55 New York counties. The acquisitions will additionally bolster its footprint in Pennsylvania.

The move is likely the first major step for Help at Home after announcing key leadership hires in January and boasting new private equity backing.

“We love the fact that they’re in the state of New York and the geographic diversity that these two acquisitions will bring to Help at Home,” Tim O’Rourke, the president of Help at Home, told Home Health Care News earlier this month. “New York is the largest home- and community-based services state in the country. We love a state that has that density and providers that have that density, much like we have throughout the rest of Help at Home.”

The company had been rumored to enter the public market but has not yet commented on any plans to do so.

At the end of 2021, Help at Home made three other acquisitions across the U.S. – one in Ohio, one in Pennsylvania and another in Georgia.

Parentis Health acquires home care provider Pop-in-Care

The California-based senior care company Parentis Health has acquired Pop-in Care, a licensed home care provider for elderly individuals with disabilities or other serious conditions.

Pop-in Care’s model is based around short visits without minimum hourly or weekly time or visitation requirements. For Parentis, the deal presented an opportunity to ensure the company was filling potential gaps in the care continuum and to ensure patients can age in place.

“Pop-in Care offers that additional level of care for patients who do not need many home care hours, but may need someone to help them a few hours a week with bathing, grooming, primary caregiver relief, or simply companionship,” Masha V. Petrova, chief marketing officer for Parentis Health, told Hospice News earlier this month. “With our acquisition of Pop-in-Care, we’ve simply extended our service offerings to deliver a more comprehensive experience to our clients and patients.”

Pop-in Care Founder Teri Frianeza Frianeza will continue to lead the business as a division of Parentis, reporting directly to the parent company’s CEO Tarek A. El Nabli.

The company will operate as a Parentis Health subsidiary and will not rebrand. Financial terms for the deal were undisclosed.

VillageMD expands into Colorado, opens new practices

VillageMD is opening two new practices in Colorado as it continues to expand its footprint in the West.

VillageMD will add more than 80 primary care clinicians across 10 primary care locations by acquiring Associates in Family Medicine and Rocky Mountain Family Practice this spring.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming new and existing patients from Fort Collins, Longmont, North Boulder County and beyond to experience primary care as it should be – available, personalized and conveniently coordinated around their needs,” VillageMD CEO Tim Barry said in a press release. “Patients needing care for complex and chronic conditions also benefit from our team-based care model of high patient engagement and education.”

VillageMD — with the help from over $6 billion invested from Walgreens — wants to be the “the largest at-risk primary care provider” in the country.

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Now times have changed, as home care services have proven to be an integral part of the overall system, especially during the public health emergency.

And with changing times comes evolution. For home care leaders, this means identifying what types of investments will move the needle forward for their companies. Some have set their sights on beefing up their telehealth services, while others are positioning themselves to tackle the growing needs of seniors living with dementia.

To get a better understanding of where home care companies are headed, Home Health Care News asked leaders in the space to tell us about the service lines they want to invest in — or are already investing in — and why it’s important for their businesses.

* * *

Our relatively young home care industry has earned a critical seat at the continuum-of-care table. Even if we weren’t there before, the pandemic and the age-in-place phenomenon certainly put us there. In the coming years, we are going to play an even greater role as the baby boomers — followed by Gen X — continue to move towards the later years of their lives. 

We especially need to focus on dementia-related care. The Alzheimer’s Association shared last week that as the nation’s 65+ population grows from 58 million today to 88 million by 2050, the number of people with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia will more than double to 13.8 million. By 2030, the number will increase from 6.1 million today to 8.5 million.

To be ready, we need to expand our understanding of the disease and dementia-related care. We must also continuously update the care options and programming. For example, Synergy HomeCare is rolling out an updated memory-care program for our more than 400 franchisees. We have added a variety of new caregiver trainings, access to remote patient monitoring devices and robotic companion pets, as well as other tools and resources. We are also providing marketing materials to attract caregivers and enhance our ability to engage and assist adult children and referral partners.

We know we will have to continue to evolve the program and constantly review it to ensure our franchisees have the greatest opportunity to provide outstanding care. As science evolves and needs change, we have to be ready.

 — Rich Paul, chief partnership officer, Synergy HomeCare

* * *

In his famous book, “Start with Why,” Simon Sinek minted the phrase, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”

What we do is provide caregivers. Why we do it is to keep people safe and comfortable in their homes. We lose to assisted living or another facility when we are unable to keep people safe and comfortable at home in a cost-efficient way.

In the personal care space, we are investing in technology partnerships and people to accomplish two things. By leveraging technology, we want another set of eyes to monitor our clients in a cost-efficient way, whether we are in the home or not. Plus, we can capture and harness data to drive predictive analytics on the client’s condition. We are not only trying to be better in the present – but also in the future.

We know there is a lot of discussion around alternative payers, and many will ask, “Are you doing this to tap into Medicare Advantage programs?”  The answer is no. We are doing this because of our why.  We are indifferent to who pays us for our services. We are confident that if we focus on our why, the business will take care of itself.

— Michael Slupecki, CEO, Griswold Home Care

* * *

At Senior Helpers, we need to investigate several new service lines as we continue to experience excellent growth along with meeting the needs of the future. One of the new service lines could be home health clinical services, now that we are owned by Advocate Aurora, which has experience in this area. This new service line would open the door for more collaboration with hospitals and managed care organizations throughout the country. In addition, this service line would provide additional revenue sources for our franchisees and corporate stores.

Another area of investment would be technology solutions to augment our service when we are not in the home or facility. We are currently testing several technologies that we could bundle with our services that show great promise in this area.

Finally, we are looking at ways to leverage virtual care so that we can have caregivers support multiple clients at the same time. This would address the workforce challenge and provide opportunities to offer more full-time work with better pay and benefits. With the demand for services and the supply of caregivers in the workforce, we need to find a way to change the caregiver to client ratio where it makes sense in the future. The home care market continues to change, and the country continues to age. Every home care leader should not just be satisfied with where they are, but should be looking to adapt to future needs and opportunities.

— Peter Ross, CEO, Senior Helpers

* * *

We’re investing in programs, like HealthyMATCH, created to proactively identify condition changes and social determinants of health needs through data analytics with the goal to deter adverse incidents — ultimately improving cost, quality outcomes and client satisfaction. There’s a long-term opportunity to expand services to manage chronic populations through connecting care and value-based care strategies that enhance the quality of in-home, personal care offered in the industry today. This model will uniquely position home care to enable a successful shift away from institutional long-term care settings to home-based care.

Another robust opportunity we’re committed to is the further development of family care and/or self-directed care approaches to meet the varying needs and interests of our clients, building on the breadth and depth of our experience in several states as a leading operator of the traditional agency model alongside the self-directed care model.

— Tim O’Rourke, president, Help at Home 

* * *

Always Best Care is continuing to focus on our transitional care program, which encompasses a broad range of services and environments designed to promote the safe and timely passage of patients between levels of health care and across care settings. We have had our eye on telehealth developments over these last couple of years with the pandemic, and late last year we began deploying our own unique remote patient monitoring (RPM) solution across our franchise network of 225+ territories.

Adding telehealth capabilities to our in-home care services allows us to provide a new level of clinical oversight. We now offer in-home care that includes real-time monitoring of vital statistics, fall alert/fall detection services, medication management, and two-way communication between client, clinician and physician. It’s an invaluable resource for our clients.

We will continue to look for opportunities to invest in technologies like this that can benefit our clients and our franchisees. Another area of interest for our franchisees is extending their relationships with their local referral sources to include staffing. Several of our owners have had great success over the past year contracting with their local nursing homes, assisted living facilities and residential care homes to provide caregivers for their teams. In the face of the continuing labor shortage, there are opportunities to provide short-term staffing to these facilities while giving our care teams invaluable training in those environments.

— Jake Brown, president and CEO, Always Best Care

* * *

As we look to the future of HouseWorks, every day we strive to find new ways to better support and invest in the service offerings we deliver to our clients and, in particular, figuring out how we can improve in delivering these services. Whether it is opening a new office location to better service clients in a new geography, working with a new payor/client type, or continuing to invest in our caregiver recruiting and retention efforts, we constantly self-reflect and evaluate to see where we can improve.

In the current labor environment, we expect to see additional investment into our workforce, both out in the field and in our corporate office. Over the last year, we witnessed firsthand the positive improvements and growth that come from strengthening both our field and corporate employees. It’s not so much that there are new service lines we want to invest in. For HouseWorks, it’s how do we further invest in our current services and employees to continue to be the provider and employer of choice within our footprint.

Overall, I feel there is a tremendous opportunity for HouseWorks as we continue to grow into the Medicaid-based business we have entered in via the Connected and Greater Boston acquisitions, while also not losing focus on the core private pay business HouseWorks built its reputation on.

— Mike Trigilio, CEO, HouseWorks

* * *

As a leader in the private pay home care market in Greater New York City, we continue our commitment to provide exceptional service to clients with long-term chronic care conditions. Those circumstances significantly impact our clients, their families, and the overall health system. This includes various neurological and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Parkinson’s, ALS, and TBI/Spinal Cord Injury. Our hybrid model of care management and best-in-class caregiving is ideal for those looking to thrive at home and remain out of the hospital and acute rehabs. Our care managers provide home therapists, mental health providers, home visiting physicians, spiritual leaders, social stimulus, art, music, and other dynamic support elements beyond the basic activities-of-daily-living needs of our client population. Our care team’s kindness and compassion is needed most in a time like this.

Lastly, we continue expanding our technology capabilities, providing our clients greater access to care from home, access to their families and tracking critical information to help support their physician and specialist teams to remain at home safely.

— Gregory Solometo, CEO, Alliance Homecare 

* * *

At Home Instead, we are investing heavily into the integration of the Honor operating systems and technology platform into the Home Instead franchise network.

The Honor tech platform is helping us provide a greater work experience for Care Professionals by giving them more control of their work schedule, benefits and take-home pay. By empowering Care Pros, we are seeing increased job satisfaction, reduction in call-offs and greater retention rates. Our efforts and investment are reflected in the results from our latest survey of Care Pros — 82% said they are likely or very likely to recommend us to friends as a great place to work.

Reduced turnover and higher Care Pro job satisfaction are leading to greater consistency and higher-quality care for our clients.

The tech platform will also help us centralize administrative functions like scheduling, payroll and billing. By doing this, Home Instead franchise owners will have more time to dedicate to quality assurance visits, care plan assessment and relationship building with clients, families and their communities.

— Jeff Huber, CEO, Home Instead

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Synergy CEO Charlie Young credits the company’s continued momentum for its success.

“If you look back over the last 24 months, we’ve added 90 new territories. The vast majority of them have been added in the last 18 months,” he told Home Health Care News. “We’re just building on the momentum, and it carried over from 2020 into 2021. I’ll also say that our value proposition and what we offer to prospective franchisees resonates with the people we’re talking to.”

Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates more than 400 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Overall, selling 52 territories allowed the company to enter some new markets in 2021, including Rhode Island and Mississippi. It also enabled Synergy to further grow its footprint in states such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina and California.

“These are all growing markets, in general, for the country, and they’re doing really well for Synergy,” Young said.

In 2020, the company noticed an increase in potential franchise owners that were interested in entering the home care business. The following year, potential Synergy franchisees tended to fit into three categories, according to Young.

“The first is health care professionals who are deeply committed to caring for people and their community,” he said. “The second is corporate employees who have decided during the pandemic that they no longer want to work for another corporation. They’re looking for opportunities where they can start a business.”

Those who fell into the second category looked for businesses that had the potential for high growth while also allowing them to make a difference.

The third category is “care-minded and compassionate” entrepreneurs, according to Young.

“The value proposition we offer a franchisee is that we help our franchise partners do well while doing good,” he said. “Beyond that, we support our franchisees with a proven home care system, a locally focused marketing program that’s dedicated to lead generation and establishing the franchisee in their marketplace. [We also have] the ability to leverage our national scale to create partnerships, both for referral business, as well as for product development and innovation.”

Aside from these categories, Young noted that Synergy typically saw interest from potential franchisees in states that have the highest growth in its senior population.

When bringing on new franchisees, Synergy values certain traits.

“We look for, first and foremost, franchise partners that can live our brand values and deliver on the promise of Synergy HomeCare,” Young said. “We also look for an entrepreneurial spirit, people that are self-motivated, and are going to be able to do the heavy lifting that is required to establish a business, like Synergy, in their local market.”

Looking ahead, Young has boiled down Synergy’s 2022 goals into three key areas of focus.

“One is adding new territories, as quickly as we can, with high-quality franchisees,” he said. “Our second priority is getting our new franchisees trained and then opened, in order to serve their communities. The third is helping our existing franchise base continue to grow their businesses as they enter their second, third, fifth, or 10th year of existence.”

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For the franchisees, or owners, that make up these networks, this means navigating challenges in service of the larger organization.

Broadly, the franchise business model allows an individual or franchisee to buy the right to sell products or services under the brand of an established company. Ongoing franchise fees are a crucial part of most franchisers’ business models.

In the case of David Robinson, owner and care coordinator of Always Best Care Senior Services of Greater Boston, building strong and strategic referral relationships has been one of many hurdles to clear.

“I wasted a lot of time going to different nursing homes, assisted living [facilities], hospitals or doctor’s offices that were never going to give me referrals, or would only give me one,” Robinson said during a panel at Home Health Care News’ Franchise Forum. “[I had to figure] out who I could get multiple referrals from. I worked extremely hard my first year. I did about $104,000 [in revenue]. The second year, we went up to over $800,000.”

Roseville, California-based Always Best Care is a home care franchise company that operates across 224 territories in 30 states and Canada. The company is backed by PE firms Gemini Investors and Plenary Partners.

Currently, Always Best Care of Greater Boston employs 500 caregivers. In addition to traditional home care services, the home care business offers free assisted living placement.

At Synergy HomeCare Northeast Metro, one major challenge has been finding dedicated caregivers, according to owner and CEO Brian McDonald.

“How do you find the right caregiver,” McDonald said during the panel. “I didn’t want somebody who could go down and work at Walmart. You’re looking for people that care. They have to care enough that they’ll drive through the snow — weather the storm, so to speak — to [care for] someone who may not want but needs our help.”

Synergy is a Gilbert, Arizona-based non-medical home care franchise that operates roughly 380 franchise locations nationwide. The company offers companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.

Synergy Northeast Metro currently employs 80 caregivers.

At a time when the demand for home care services continues to grow, recruitment, which has always been an industry-wide problem, hits even harder.

Furthermore, McDonald noted that agencies need to recruit in order to continue growing.

No doubt the biggest challenge faced by franchisees today is the impact of the COVID-19 emergency.

Learning how to react quickly to change as it happens is one of the biggest skills Robinson has picked up during this time.

“You have to be ready,” he said. “We bought the proper PPE. We deployed that just as quickly. Our nurse went out and saw everybody — talked about how to wear the PPE and stay safe.”

Last year, the health care sector was plagued with PPE shortages. While many had trouble sourcing PPE, being part of a franchise network helped Always Best Care of Greater Boston.

“We had people at the franchise center who were specifically looking for PPE,” Robinson said. “In those early days, you couldn’t find it. The hospital didn’t have it, so they were sourcing PPE for us. We’re running a business 24/7. It’s not like I had extra time to go and find PPE. It was really helpful to have somebody doing that.”

Part of navigating the public health emergency was avoiding taking on more than what the agency was capable of at the time, according to McDonald.

“We never took on any positive clients … because we needed to conserve our resources for current clients that may catch covid from a caregiver or from a loved one,” he said. “I think circling the wagons really helped us during the pandemic, especially when it was peaking about a year ago.”

Since getting into the home care business, both Always Best Care of Greater Boston and Synergy Northeast Metro have seen major growth.

At Always Best Care of Greater Boston, one of the key growth drivers has been hiring at least one new caregiver daily.

“One new caregiver a day is five a week. It’s 20 a month. It’s 240 a year. Over 12 years, that’s how we got to over 500,” Robinson said.

On its end, enhancing its online presence has been the key to growing Synergy Northeast Metro’s business.

“Synergy has done a great job on the website,” McDonald said. “This helps with SEO, driving people to our website. As the baby boomers continue to boom, their adult children are the ones going to their phones. So much of our business is being driven from the internet.”

Looking ahead, McDonald is most excited about the exponential growth opportunity happening in home care.

“When I started this, [baby boomers] were turning age 65 or older at a rate of 10,000 a day,” he said. “Now they’re turning 75 at a rate of 10,000 a day. They’re starting to get into our [client] demographic.”

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